Pentecost (detail)
by RESTOUT, Jean II, Oil on canvas
Jean Restout came of a family of painters and did many religious and mythological pictures, and worked for a time for Frederick the Great. This enormous canvas, a masterpiece of 18th-century religious painting, once adorned the refectory (dining room) of the Abbey of Saint-Denis outside Paris. With its exaggerated view from below and the extreme perspective of the rows of columns to the left and right, the work is reminiscent of Baroque ceiling paintings.
Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 7 minutes):
Johann Sebastian Bach: Komm, heiliger Geist, choral BWV 652